1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a nail clipper for clipping the fingernails or toenails of human beings in a manner that makes it easier to control where the cutting edges are positioned prior to clipping and remain positioned during the clipping. The user actuates the invention's clipping operation by applying pressure between the thumb and forefinger directly above and below the clipper's cutting edges such that there is no resultant force that might cause the cutting edges to move from the desired position for cutting the user's nail.
2. Description of Related Art
Various nail clippers have been provided that all perform the basic clipping operation. They are primarily comprised of the cutting arm springs joined together at one end and having slightly separated and opposing cutting edges on their other end. Some of these designs are U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,226,849 and D. 392,419. The current invention employs a modified first lever which is relatively shorter than the first lever in prior art common nail clipper designs, and which first bends upwardly at a more extreme angle than in prior art common nail clipper designs and then curves downwardly before straightening out so that its end is largely parallel to the cutting arm springs of the nail clipper. The current invention adds a second lever arm assembly which pivots on a hinge that is integrated and attached to both cutting arm springs at the end opposite their cutting edges. The addition of the second lever arm assembly, along with the modified first lever, together result in the current invention's improved usability and its differentiation from the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,449 employs a similar design which envelops an unmodified common nail clipper of prior art in a two part hinged apparatus that includes a second lever arm to press down on the lever of the enveloped common nail clipper of prior art. The device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,449 uses a second lever with a U-shaped cross-section that does not allow the first lever to pass through it. This design requires the hinge point for the second lever to be considerably further away from the nail clipper's cutting edges than the ends of a common nail clipper's cutting arms are so that the angle at which the common nail clipper's lever hits the second lever is acute enough to allow it to slide along the second lever as the second lever is rotated towards the clipper's cutting edges during use. This device requires a second damping bar to be riveted to the end of the common nail clipper to extend the common nail clipper's cutting arms so that the longer second lever can be hinged to the damping bar at the end farthest from the common nail clipper's cutting edges. This results in a device that is considerably longer than a common nail clipper which violates one of the goals of the current invention. Further, the current invention differentiates from this design in quietness and smoothness of operation as in its preferred embodiment it employs a roller on a pivot pin that spans the two vertically-oriented side bars of its second lever assembly, to smoothly roll along the first lever as the second lever rotates towards the nail clipper's cutting edges.
Alternate prior art function using a scissors-like action that doses the cutting edges. Some of these designs are relevant as their goal is similar to the current invention. These designs, covered by U.S. Pat. Nos. 741,709 and D629,161 S, add a lever arm to the scissors-like design that allows the user to apply pressure dose to the location of the cutting edges in a manner similar to the current invention. While this design is similar to the current invention in that they share the goal of allowing the user to apply force dose to the cutting action, the scissors-like cutting action is different from the current invention's cutting action.